New Atom for old Qute

My 9 year mark 1 Qute ( value c. £600) was lost in transit following a screen replacement. Without any prompting Naim offered to provide a brand new Atom as a replacement - pretty impressive given it is worth 4 times the value of the Qute.

The Qute was used in my second system supplemented by a Prisma NP5 as I struggled with the Qute’s streaming function in my setup. I also added a bargain NAP100 (£450 discontinued model/open box). Knowing the repair would take many weeks I bought a £100 Topping E30 DAC/pre as a stop gap. The NP5/E30/NAP100 works very well given the use the seond system gets. A £2.4K Atom would be wasted. I’m happy with the main system and the digitised analogue input would be offputting so it looks like I’ll end up selling an unopened box which is a shame but no doubt the new owner would enjoy it.

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Hi, I would really rethink that approach and try the Atom in your situation first. I have just recently connected a Super Audio CD player to my Atom via the analogue input and I was surprised about the quality of the sound (as I also figured that the digitized input would downgrade sound quality). Also the Atom DAC is very very good as well is the built in streamer. I don’t think your current combo with the Topping will beat the Atom when it comes to musicality. :innocent:

BR,
Richard

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Well done to Naim for excellent service. I recently experienced the reverse from Sony. My 13 month old wireless headphones recently developed a fault I couldn’t fix so I returned them to Sony for repair. They subsequently told me they no longer had the parts to repair them and offered to send them back without fixing them or offered a replacement pair of the newer model for £105. What a waste to have to throw away lightly used 13 month old headphones and to pay a substantial sum for a new pair. I shan’t be buying Sony equipment in future. I had a similar situation with a 15 month old pair of wired Bose headphones and they replaced them with a new pair. Naim are so much better

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If you are within the EU - or possibly UK, Sony is behaving illegal.

Top marks to Naim customers service for offering an Atom to replace the lost UQ, that is really impressive! I have a topping DAC here that I’ve been playing with (on loan from a friend who upgraded) and its just fine, but personally, I think I’d be keeping the Atom :wink:.

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Dang! I just spent $400 for a screen replacement on my 24/96 UQ. Somehow I doubt Focal NA would offer the same replacement if they had lost mine. Great service from Naim.

I bought a Matrix Mini-i Pro 3 in the interim, and while I thought it sounded very good in it’s own ESS dac chip sort of way, slotting the UQ back in was like coming home to a great pair of old slippers. You might want to try the Atom. My bet is you’ll be selling the Prisma and Topping (and perhaps the 100).

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